Thursday, October 21, 2010

Yesterday I saw Mrs. Dementia, who's a sweet old lady who lives with her son.

Dr. Grumpy: "So at her last visit I started your mom on Remembra, for Alzheimer's disease. How's she been doing?"

Mr. Son: "Great doc, she's much better!"

Dr. Grumpy: "In what way?"

Mr. Son: "She's clearer. Like, she goes out for walks every night. The neighbors or police used to call us 3 or 4 times a week to say they found her lost somewhere. Since starting the drug they only call about once a week."

As a public service I thought I would mention this product, called "road ID". It's marketed to the runners and cyclists, but it would be useful for anyone...elderly, children, people who travel... It is much better than a medic alert bracelet-You can put names, phone numbers, plus medical info etc... I wear one all the time so that when the aggressive driver runs me off the road for daring to run or bike on it, the medics will know what I'm allergic to or who to call to claim the body. Can also put your insurance info on there as well. I'm surprised I don't see this marketed to much broader audience...

A recent study indicated that cognitive ability is enhanced by walking 6 ro 9 miles per week. More than that, my family likes to tell me, does not increase benefit. The like to tell me that because I walk 3 to 5 miles per day 7 days a week. But it would appear that the ladies walking is working better than the Dr.'s medicine. Ths son should be walking with her, because he clearly needs to do so.

When I was between contracts, I had the habit of going for long walks in the country, looking for redeemable bottles and cans. I dressed in t shirt and shorts, no matter the weather. I was constantly stopped by the local police who thought that I was either homeless or a victim of dementia. I always carried my wallet with ID to be on the safe side.

::head:laptop:: My grandmother loved to walk and she had an altered mental status after a number of strokes & TIAs. However a) we didn't let her walk at night (eg after dark) even though she lived on a dead end with very little traffic and b) we didn't allow her to walk alone once she hit a certain level of altered state. ::shakes head::

My grandfather did have Alzheimer's and in fact, I don't think my mother & aunts listened to me when I told them that they needed to take his car keys away. Sorry, but when you need step-by-step instructions for using the coffee pot, toaster, & stove and still have trouble with them as well as stopping by the auto dealer at least twice a week to ask how the electric window work, it's time to stop driving. Just saying. ::sigh::

I've already told my children to ignore my irritability and take the keys when I hit that point of functionality, pointing out that the irritability is just one more symptom.

Alzheimer is the weirdest disease. My grandmother had it had she didn't have a clue who I was. She did, however, recognize me in baby pictures. The only person she could recognize was my father, and she wasn't even his mother, she was my mother's mother!

Welcome to my whining!

This blog is entirely for entertainment purposes. All posts about patients may be fictional, or be my experience, or were submitted by a reader, or any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate.

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